Facebook last week put together an official list of the acceptable ad providers that developers can use to generate indirect revenue from their Facebook applications. Conspicuously absent from the sanctioned providers are large players such as Amazon.com--who offers an advertising API--and Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) well-known AdSense service. The root of the matter has to do with Amazon and Google refusing to new terms of service that would have barred them from directly or indirectly receiving Facebook user data; even with the explicit consent of the user.

Developers are expressing outrage however, over the fact that the smaller ad providers on the approved list are startups or have insufficient inventory. Even the larger providers are not spared from criticism, with one developer, Anatoly Lubarsky, writing about the "very bad track record" of these companies. Another discussion reported by PC World compared the situation to that of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) when it went after Netscape's market share. "But what the App Store and Facebook are doing makes Microsoft's actions look positively charitable."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at The Register
- check out this article at PC World

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